by Charles Todd
Rated: PG
Waiting and hoping for her husband to return to their village in rural England from the Great War, a wife paints her door red as a welcome home. A year later, a paralyzed man goes missing from an exclusive health clinic in London. A few days after that, a woman is found dead in a house with a bright red door. Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge, himself tormented with ghosts from his time in the war, is assigned to both cases and finds that perhaps the family of the missing man and the murdered wife of the husband killed in the war have more connections than at first meets the eye. In order to discover the truth, Ian must breach the solid front of a wealthy family protecting itself, uncover the secret jealousies of a small rural village, and prevent his personal demons from overwhelming him.
This book is one in a series that features Ian Rutledge as the main character. There is mild, occasional swearing and a couple of scenes of mild violence. Although this is a murder mystery, the descriptions of murder are kept very low key. The writing style is enjoyable and while it was not what I would consider a gripping page-turner or an unfathomable mystery, it was entertaining.
